THREE KEY PRINCIPLES OF HERMENEUTICS TO KEEP IN MIND WHEN STUDYING THE BIBLE.
(I Tim. 2: 8-15)
INTRODUCTION:
OVERVIEW OF I TIMOTHY 1:1-20 to 2:7
1:1-2 – Overview of Christian Faith based on names for
God and the blessings He bestows on His people.
1:3-4a False teaching in Ephesian Church and how humanistic philosophy effects us today.
1:4b-6 – The goal of the command is love. (Loving God, fellow
Christians, the non-Christian world)
1:7-8 – The law is good if used properly. (The law’s deterrent, punitive and educative purposes)
1:8-11 – “Whatever else …” The Gospel Ethic. (Law-Philia University)
1:11 – “The Blessed God” and our Relationship with Him. (We can fill God’s heart with pain or joy and happiness)
1:12-16 Why Paul considered himself the worst of sinners.
1:12-16 Conversion of the apostle Paul.
1:12-16 Paul’s call to ministry.
1:17 Paul’s doxology of praise for his conversion.
1:18-20 How to avoid shipwrecking our faith.
2:1-3 The Christian is to pray for all men.
2:4,6 Comparison of Calvinism & Armenianism.
2:5-6 The man, Christ Jesus, the only mediator.
2:1-7 The vision, the message, the means.
2:8-15 Treatment of women in the ancient world, the early
church and the Bible.
2:8-15 Three key principles of hermeneutics to keep in mind when studying the Bible.
THREE KEY PRINCIPLES OF HERMENEUTICS TO KEEP IN MIND WHEN STUDYING THE BIBLE.
I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing. 9I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, 10but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God. 11A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. 12I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. 13For Adam was formed first, then Eve. 14And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. 15But women [she] will be saved [restored] through childbearing–if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety. (I Tim. 2:15-18).
INTRODUCTION:
1. Definition of Hermeneutics The study of the methodological principles of interpretation (as of the Bible); The principles, rules or methodology of interpretation. The science of interpretation, especially of Scripture. [ETYMOLOGY: 18th Century: from Greek hermeneutikos expert in interpretation, from hermeneuein to interpret, from hermeneus interpreter, of uncertain origin].
2. Three Principles: (1) The Principle of Context; (2) The Principle of Harmony; (3) The Principle of History.
1. THE PRINCIPLE OF CONTEXT
1.1 John Wycliffe (1324-1384
“It shall greatly help ye to understand Scripture,
If thou Mark
Not only what is spoken or written,
But of whom,
And to whom,
With what words,
At what time,
Where,
To what intent,
With what circumstances,
Considering what goeth before
And what followeth.
1.2. Job 2:4 – “A man will give all he has for his own life.” Who said this?
1.3. Context: What goes before and what comes after. Usually, the closer the context the more important it is.
Illustration: Determining the flow, depth, direction, width of a river by looking at what goes before and what goes after.
1.4 Example # 1 – Luke 10:2 “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
1.4.1. Luke 9:51-55 – Disciples wanted to call down fire upon Samaritan village
1.4.2. Luke 9:57-62 – Jesus teaches weeds out uncommitted followers.
1.4.3. Luke 10:1 – Jesus appoints 72 others
1.4.4. Luke 10:2 – Pray for workers
1.4.5. Luke 10:3-11 – Instructions for ministry.
1.5 Example # 2 — Life of Peter … “Do you love me?” questions. They mean more when we remember his declaration, “Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God,” His rebuke to Jesus concerning the cross, his denial of Christ and his sermon on the Day of Pentecost.
1.6. Example # 3 – Troy Hudson of the Minnesota Timberwolves scores 39 points. You watch the game for the first time – conclusion, he is the star of the team. But that was one game, the real star is Kevin Garnett.
2. THE PRINCIPLE OF HARMONY
2.1. When God speaks he does not contradict himself so we expect the Bible to contain an underlying consistency. If we find some verses that seem to go against the flow of the general stream of Scripture we will try to see how they harmonize (without hammering them into place) with the whole.
2.2. Calvinism’s Third Point: The effects of the atonement, by which God forgave sinful humanity, are limited only to those whom He has chosen or Christ died only for the elect.
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11).
Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood (Acts 20:28).
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her (Ephesians 5:25).
2.3. Verses that contradict Calvinism’s Third Point:
He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world (I John 2:2).
And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world (I John 4:14).
The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world (John 1:29).
This [is] a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief ( I Tim. 1:15)
God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved …Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom of all men (I Tim. 2:4,6).
3. THE PRINCIPLE OF HISTORY
3.1. God always spoke his word in particular historical and cultural settings, specially of the ancient Near East (the Old Testament), Palestinian Judaism (the Gospels) and the Graeco-Roman world (the rest of the New Testament). No word of God was spoken in a cultural vacuum; every word was spoken in a cultural context. It is, in fact, the glory of divine revelation that, in order to communicate with his people, God did not shout culture-free maxims at them from a distance. Instead, he stooped to their level, entered their history, assumed their culture and spoke their language. Yet this divine condescension also creates acute problems on interpretation for us. For Scripture is an amalgam of substance and form, of eternal truth which transcends culture and its transient cultural presentation. The former is universal and normative; the latter is local and changeable. (John Stott on I Timothy, pg. 74-5).
3.2. Three options in interpreting cultural expressions in Scripture.
3.2.1. Enthrone the cultural form with a rigid literalism equating it with eternal truth.
3.2.1. Dismiss the cultural form entirely thus downgrading the eternal truth included in the text to the level of cultural expression.
3.2.3. Separate the eternal from the cultural – Cultural Transposition: Discerning between God’s essentialrevelation (which is changeless) and its cultural expression (which is changeable). We preserve the eternal truth and accept the changeable in contemporary cultural terms.
3.3. Looking at the three options of interpreting cultural expressions in the light of John 13:2-17 (Jesus Washes His Disciples Feet).
3.3.1. If we enthrone the cultural form of this text with rigid literalism, what do we get?
3.3.2. If we dismiss the whole passage as cultural expression only relevant in the Palestinian Judaism of the Gospels, what do we lose?
3.3.3. If we separate the eternal from the cultural (CulturalTransposition) what do we preserve as eternal and what do we accept as cultural expression?
3.4. What are the weaknesses of each methodology?
3.4.1. If we enthrone cultural form, we end up like Islam, and try to bring first century culture into the twenty-first century.
3.4.2. If we dismiss every concept because of the cultural form it is presented in, we end up with no objective, eternal truth in the Bible because all of the Bible is couched in cultural settings.
3.4.3. If we use “Cultural Transposition” to solve these problems, we won’t solve them all but we will have a way of avoiding throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
3.5 Applying the three options of the “Principle of History” when looking at I Timothy 6:1-2.
3.5.1. Enthroning cultural form with a rigid literalism (What do we gain?)
“The debate will be held Saturday night, May 3, from 8:30-10:00 pm EDT at the Longstreet Theater,” the South Carolina Democratic Party has announced.
The Longstreet Theater’s namesake, Augustus B. Longstreet, held strong views on the right to own slaves, research shows. “Abolitionism seemed to him hypocrisy and blasphemy and as a minister of Christ he could not hold fellowship with those who rejected the Master’s word.” (“Main Currents In American Thought,” Volume II, 1800-1860, 1927). Longstreet became president of South Carolina College at a time when he was a staunch secessionist. His rigorous support of secession caused a fervor which led the student body to enlist en masse when the Civil War began.
3.5.2. Dismissing cultural form and the truth contained therein (What do we lose?)
3.5.3. Cultural Transposition: What is eternal? What is cultural?
SO WHAT?
1. By neglecting these basic principles of hermeneutics, (The Principle of Context, The Principle of Harmony, The Principle of History) we distort the teaching of Scripture.
2. Without following these principles we end up supporting by Scripture concepts and ideas that are non-Biblical and living out a lifestyle that is very un-Christian.
3. We need to consistently follow these principles when studying all of Scripture, just not when it satisfies our whims. Consistency is key!